my pump hangs from its hose well off the bottom. I have no "stuff" on the bottom
except the pea gravel the koi took out of the lily pot. they even carry it by
mouthfuls and dump it into the winter filter bucket. Koi "sweep" the bottom of the
pond by picking and the action of their tails. this puts the stuff up into the water
which gets dumped in the veggie filter and removed each fall from there. It has
now been 9 years and have never had to clean the pond. of course, my pond is netted
and so no leaves or other detritus blows in there. Ingrid

On Thu, 9 Jul 2009 15:24:13 EDT, Jim Elbrecht wrote:
I think if I did that in my pond, I'd have all the dirt collecting at
the bottom and not being sucked up by the pump. What I'd really like
is a pond pump with a float switch fitted.
Somewhere between zone 5 and 6 tucked along the shore of Lake Michigan
on the council grounds of the Fox, Mascouten, Potawatomi, and Winnebago